Google still dominates the market with 65.9 percent market share, and Yahoo dropped to the number three spot at 14.5 percent.

The reported search engine rankings for December 2011, according to comScore, are stated below:

• Google – 65.9% (up from 65.4% in November 2011)
• Bing – 15.1% (+.1 change from November)
• Yahoo – 14.5% (down from 15.1%)
• Ask – remaining at 2.9%
• AOL – remaining at 1.6%

More than 18.2 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December, which is a two percent increase from November. 12 billion searches were placed on Google sites, 2.7 billion were through Bing (up 2 percent), and 2.6 billion on Yahoo! Sites. We are anxious to see if Bing will remain in the number two spot in following months, and maybe even further the gap with Yahoo searches.

What is Yahoo Voices?

Yahoo Voices is a new online base for over two million pieces of original content on a variety of topics. It was created by over 500,000 people who have published articles, videos, and recordings. All of this content could previously be found on Yahoo’s Associated Content site (www.associatedcontent.com), however this site is officially closing and Yahoo Voices will take over. On Yahoo Voices, consumers and advertisers will be able to see real perspectives and get real expertise on nearly every topic. However, the guidelines for publishing on Yahoo Voices are more specified than previously on Associated Content. The updated submission guidelines are leaning towards making the site more unique and well written. They are focusing more on first person stories from experts, enthusiasts, and citizen journalists. After being reviewed and approved by a Yahoo editor, content will be published.

How it Works:

Authors submit stories on topics of their choice to the Yahoo Contributor Network. After being reviewed by a Yahoo editor, stories that meet submission guidelines are published on Yahoo Voices or other Yahoo destinations.

“Through our unique publishing platform (Yahoo! Contributor Network) and this new digital library (Yahoo! Voices), Yahoo! upholds and expands the scope of Associated Content’s original mission: Enabling any individuals with specialized knowledge and experience to create original content, share it with an audience of millions, and often earn a portion of the revenue it generates.”

Now, fast-forward one year to August 2011. According to Experian Hitwise, the Yahoo-Bing relationship has gained just over 4% of the U.S. market share. This pushes their total U.S. market share from 24.56% to 28.99% in just over one year’s time. In this same period of time, Google has seen their total U.S. market share decrease by over 6%. They went from having a U.S. market share of 71.59% in August 2010 to 65.09% in August 2011.

So what is causing this increase in market share by Yahoo-Bing? Although there’s no clear-cut answer, there seems to be a few contributing factors. The Yahoo-Bing return-on-investment for advertisers has increased by over 10% in the last year while the Google Adwords ROI fell by roughly 12% in the same time. Also, according to Experian Hitwise, “Yahoo! Search and Bing achieved the highest success rates in…2011.  This means that for both search engines, more than 81 percent of searches executed resulted in a visit to a Website.  Google achieved a success rate of 66 percent.”

For now, the Yahoo-Bing market share gains seem rather minimal, but they are at least heading in the right direction. Do you see this shift in market share continuing?

Bartz began her tenure as CEO with the task of bringing Yahoo! back to relevance after the failure of Yahoo! Co-founder Jerry Yang’s experiment at CEO. With such high expectations, the initial support and grace she received quickly turned to disappointment. As such, it seemed to be only a matter of time before she was fired and the news of her termination caused Yahoo!’s stock price to increase.

Now that Bartz is gone, Yahoo! is left with an important choice on what to do next. Rumors of Yahoo! selling parts or all of its company are being circulated around, but it seems much more likely that they will instead try to find a game-changing CEO to run the company. What Yahoo! needs is a Steve Jobs as their CEO. Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, is seen as one of the greatest CEO’s of our time. He effectively saved Apple from the brink of bankruptcy and morphed it into one of the most successful companies in the world with a revenue of over $60 billion, in a little over 10 years.

Although it is unlikely that Yahoo! can find another Steve Jobs, there are a lot of options for the company going forward. Should Yahoo! cut its losses and sell the company? Or should they go after a game-changing CEO? If so, who?

What Yahoo has that Google and Bing doesn’t have…

If you notice at the top of image search in Yahoo, there are three tabs. These tabs let you better categorize the images that you are more interested in.

•  Top Images: Next to the “Top Images” tab will be an additional “Latest” tab that will automatically appear for image search results of trending topics, such as images of events, news, or celebrities.
• Galleries: This will include photo galleries from Yahoo News, Flickr, and OMG.
• Facebook: The Facebook tab automatically appears if the search results include matches from your Facebook friend’s name or photo albums. This tab works only if you set up your Facebook account with Yahoo Image Search.

That isn’t it for Yahoo Image Search. Yahoo has a new design element that when after you click on the thumbnail, it uploads the full sized image in a large gallery. The original site that provided the image is listed at the bottom, while the top bar gives a close-up of the image. The right navigation allows users to browse between options from Yahoo’s original image search results. This is an important change for Yahoo.

Yahoo Stepping Up Their Game

Yahoo’s new design of their image search will hopefully guide Internet users to search more in their image search rather than Google or Bing. These improvements were longer over due, but now they are launched and ready to be enhanced by users. The tabs of Top Images, Latest, Galleries and Facebook provides the most simple view and a clearer understanding of browsing and navigating through images.  Check out Yahoo’s new Image Search design and tabs and let us know what you think!

This is perhaps a result of Google offering users more than just search results – Google has become a one-stop shop, affording users the ability to check their mail, get directions, watch the latest viral video, find up to date news sourced more than a thousand times, and even translate the website for that hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland, which doesn’t seem to have an English button.

6 Slick Tricks

Nonetheless, most Internet surfers are unaware of the many tools Google provides that does not warrant an insular tab at the top the page.  By entering specific codes into the search field, you can manipulate Google to do whatever it is you want it to.  Here are six of my favorite unknown tricks of the trade:

1. Spell Check:

Google is perhaps the fastest way to check your spelling.  By typing your word into the search field, Google will confirm a million times over the correct spelling or suggest an alternate.  Likewise, you can enter the “define” operator to instruct Google to show you only dictionary entries.

2. Calculator:

Yes, your computer does have a calculator.  So does your phone.  But sometimes those places are just farther away than a Google search bar.  Try searching an arithmetic nightmare like “538/14 * (17+284)/ 2”. Then go ahead and check it on your calculator and ask yourself which method was easier.

3. World Clock:

Trying to figure out if you can call that hotel in Reykjavik to book a room?  Search “time Reykjavik” to see whether or not it’s business hours.  Naturally, this is an invaluable tool in a world were you need to call London, San Diego, and New Delhi all in one working day.

4. Currency Converter:

Need to find out how many kroner you’re getting for your dollar? Type “100 dollars in kroner” to find out.  You can, of course, use Google to find out that Iceland is on the kroner before you begin converting.

5. Exclusion Operator:

This one is an oldie but worth repeating.  Search ‘ “masters” –woods ’ to see the untold stories of this weekend’s golf tournament.  That little minus sign may be all that stands between you and a torrent of unwanted search results.

6. File Type Operator:

You can limit your search results to specific file types.  Ever want to know what power points people have published on Reykjavik?  Search “reykjavik filetype:ppt” to be amazed.  Likewise you can search everything from avi to zip for your file-finding needs.

Dec 07 22.4%
Jan 08 21.7%
Feb 08 21.2%
Mar 08 20.8%
Apr 08 19.9%
May 08 20.1%
Jun 08 19.6%
Jul 08 20.0%
Aug 08 19.7%
Sep 08 19.8%
Oct 08 20.1%
Nov 08 20.3%
Dec 08 20.5%

They really have not grown their share and with more competitors hitting the market and Google growing their monster engine, it will be tough for Yahoo moving forward. This being said, our clients at Internet Marketing Inc still get decent results and high conversions from Yahoo. In fact sometimes conversion rates are actually even higher on Yahoo than they are in Google. With the recent CEO change, I am excited to see how Yahoo grows moving forward. I actually still use them as my home page and personal search page over Google but apparently I only make up 20% of people. Check with your internet marketing company to see what search engine is right for you and your business. Odds are that it will be a combination of all the major search engines.
-Brandon